Van Tharp's Super Trader ProgramThe ultimate program for traders who are
committed to being the best.

The mission of the Super Trader program is to not only transform your trading but also your life.

To accomplish that mission, you will commit to investing a substantial amount of your time, money, and effort over the next few years.

Regardless of your previous trading experience, you will work together with Dr. Tharp to define specific objectives for you to meet during the program and together you will also create a customized curriculum to help you reach those objectives.

A Unique Program

The mission of The Super Trader Program is to totally transform both your trading and your life for the better. To accomplish this mission, you must be prepared to invest in yourself in many ways. While investing in your trading education is a big step financially, we are confident that your returns will be huge when you commit to investing your time & best effort, and approach the program with an intense desire to transform into the best version of yourself. This is a process you will engage in over the next few years, and does require careful consideration.

Regardless of your previous trading experience, students will work with Dr. Tharp to define specific objectives to meet during the program and create a customized curriculum to help them reach those objectives. This program is unique because each student comes from a different history, and also have different trading goals. Students will be complete Dr. Tharp’s Super Trader lessons, attend regular workshops, and send weekly reports to Dr. Tharp describing their progress. He will also help guide you to solve all the issues that hold you back in your trading life - many students realize that these same issues are mirrored in their personal lives as well. They are what keep you from being happy for no reason at all.

The Core of the Super Trader Program

The primary mission of the Van Tharp Institute (VTI) is to help people transform, which we accomplish through the trading metaphor. The Super Trader Program is the most comprehensive and effective way to achieve our mission — and we are able to accept a limited number of qualified, motivated students into this program each year. Super Trader is so much more than just figuring out how to trade more profitably. In fact, most students in our Super Trader program say that their personal transformations were just as important, if not more so, than the trading/financial improvement they saw as a result of their perseverance throughout the program. We are honored to be such an important part of their transformational journeys, and that we can support their trading goals in this way.

The program itself is designed around the core elements that must be mastered in order to trade at the highest levels. As Dr. Tharp’s research has proven, transforming the self, treating your trading as a business, and developing trading systems that fit you all work together to ensure success.

No matter what market you choose, or what system you are using - trading is 100% psychological. Your beliefs, mental states, and mental strategies all inform the outcome of your time in the markets. For example, at the most basic level, the task of executing a trade involves the following mental strategy:

1) Seeing the signal that requires you to enter
2) Recognizing that signal is your entry signal
3) Feeling good about it, and then…
4) Acting on it by opening a position.

If you were to change that sequence of mental events just a little, even by hesitating a little by asking yourself what could go wrong, then it is likely that you would imagine something going wrong, not feel good as a result, and then be unable to take action at the appropriate time. Notice that even the action phase of trading is psychological. Because trading is entirely psychological, any unresolved psychological issues will show up in aspects of your trading. Psychological issues are revealed in peoples’ personal life as well, but the markets are an especially expensive place to learn about these shortfalls. Out of the entire program, the psychological phase typically takes the longest time to complete.

During his 30+ years of experience as a trading coach, Dr. Tharp has also found that successful traders treat trading like a business, as opposed to a hobby – as many traders tend to do. When you view your trading as a business, it allows you to cultivate discipline, structure, and a professional approach that fosters consistent and profitable trading. Most people who want to run a successful business know that they need a thorough business plan – and trading is no exception. A business plan acts as a guide for everything involved with that business, and this applies equally if not more to a trading business. The second phase of the Super Trader program starts to bring into focus students desires for their dream life, and integrating this with a business plan allows for intense focus and direction.

Finally, traders must use positive expectancy systems that fit them well and the appropriate market types, in order to be successful at trading. In order to achieve this facet of the program, a trader must:

Possess a thorough understanding of the parts of a trading system,

The systems development process,

What kind of systems truly do fit them, and

And how different systems work in different market types.

To graduate from the program, students must demonstrate knowledge, and also the application of that knowledge, in the markets as evidenced by live trading results.

The Five Steps of the Program

Dr. Tharp has taken the core elements for successful trading and developed a five-step process for the Super Trader Program, addressed in each of the segments of the Super Trader Program. The program is divided into Super Trader I, II, and, as of July 2016 a new level III. To graduate the program, you must complete all five components to Dr. Tharp’s satisfaction.

Super Trader I – Step 1 and 2

Super Trader II – Step 3

Super Trader III - Steps 4 and 5

Step 1 - Requires students to have a thorough understanding of Tharp Think principles of trading. This includes the information contained in Super Trader and Trade Your Way to Financial Freedom. Students must also learn the Tharp Concepts and know all of the terms in our glossary—both of which can be found on our web site: www.vantharp.com. In addition to these basic tenets, students will become proficient in the basics of position sizing™ strategies by playing the Position Sizing Game, completing the Position Sizing e-Learning Course, and passing the self-test in the Definitive Guide to Position Sizing Strategies. One of the first lessons of the program involves installing these beliefs into your neurology so they become second nature to you. However, before students accomplish this, they must thoroughly understand the concepts in order to make sure that they fit them.

Step 2 - Focuses on a student’s personal psychology. In order to apply for the Super Trader program, a student must have already attended Peak Performance 101 Workshop (or Oneness Awakening Course), and students can immediately begin the Peak Performance Home Study Course, if they have not done so already. Dr. Tharp has structured a set of twenty one Super Trader lessons to take you beyond the Peak Performance Home Study Course and help students explore their psychology more thoroughly.

During this step of the program, students will attend other psychological workshops in the Peak Performance series: Peak 202, Peak 203 - The Happiness Workshop, Peak 204 – Modeling Great Trading Through Mental Strategies, Trading Genius, Infinite Wealth and the Oneness Awakening Workshop. The next step is to complete Libby Adams’ 28-day course.

When students have completed the twenty one psychological lessons to Dr. Tharp’s approval, and can document five major issues that have changed for them through the program, a major facet of the psychological portion of their trading transformation will be complete. Does this mean that they will only have five transformations in their life? No, of course not! But, once students have documented five, students should be able to recognize future psychological issues as they come up, and handle them with the skills they have learned in the first part of their journey. Certainly other things are expected to come up as students cross over into the technical learnings in Super Trader II.

Step 3 - Students work on creating their dream life, and integrating it with a business handbook created for their trading business. The Blueprint for Trading Success Workshop provides a basic template for students to follow. We used to require a traditional business plan of students, but we were delighted when some Super Trader students started presenting their business plans in very personal and creative ways. We could see how much they actually enjoyed reading and completing their plans, because they were rich with their dreams and plans for the future. This new business handbook format is now a requirement – students should complete this within the parameters requested, but in a way that is meaningful to them.

Step 4 - This step allows you get a full understanding of the key factors in system design. The How to Develop a Winning Trading System that Fits You Home Study Course and the corresponding in-person workshop, as well as our more advanced strategy workshops, help you create at least three systems that fit your beliefs, meet your criteria for trading them, fit different market types, and are non-correlated. Before you can begin to trade these systems with full position sizes, you need to know or estimate the SQN® score of each system in each market type before Dr. Tharp approves you trading each system.

Step 5 - Teaches students how to manage your trading mistakes. Once students start tracking their mistakes and determine the R-multiple value of each one they make, they quickly learn how not to repeat those mistakes so they can meet their one-year trading objectives. Once a student has demonstrated proficiency at trading at a high efficiency level (at least 95% in three systems) for a sustained period (more than 100 trades), they are able graduate from the program.

To be considered a Super Trader graduate, students must complete all five steps. In the past, this process may have taken up to six years to complete, depending on a trader’s background, commitment level, and how much time each person allocated to their Super Trader studies. We have made some changes to the program that will allow students to work at what we believe to be a much more rapid pace, with some additional guidance at the onset of the program that should remove some additional psychological hurdles and provide students with increasingly difficult lessons as they progress through the program. It is our hope that most students will now be able to complete the bulk of their work within three years, with additional time being available to students that wish to take longer.

Students really have quite a bit of freedom in this self-paced program – how quickly students move through the lessons depends upon the amount of commitment you are willing to give to your trading education. We will still allow for traders to take up to six years to complete the program, with the understanding that additional tuition will be due after the first three years of the program.

Super Trader I - The Awakening Program

Criteria for Admittance

Attendance at Peak Performance 101 and/or the Oneness Awakening Course (within the past 12 months), during which Dr. Tharp can gain a sense of a candidate’s personal responsibility, awareness, and desire to work on the most important factor in their trading — themselves.

Submission of an application and waiver, including a personal statement of commitment.

Completion of the book Trading Beyond the Matrix: The Red Pill for Traders and Investors. We request that you read the Matrix book because it will help you understand the scope of what you are getting into when you enroll in the program.

Proof that the program makes financial sense for you. Paying the tuition for the program should not result in feelings of insecurity about your finances, or inability to realize an attractive return on your Super Trader financial investment.

The Super Trader Awakening Turbocharge – A custom 3-day Oneness course developed by Van and offered as part of the Super Trader Summit. May involve additional tuition if guest instructors are invited to speak (generally this is less than $500).

Systems Thinking: Mastering Your Trading Maps with Matrix Thinking

Tharp Think (via video recording)

Libby Adams’ 28-day Transformation Course which includes her one-on-one instruction and coaching.

Students are discouraged from attending technical workshops during this phase, though you are allowed to do so. If students in Super Trader I choose to attend a technical workshop, they may pay discounted tuition of $2,000 per workshop, which is refundable up until 14 days prior to the commencement of the workshop in question. If the student cancels their attendance at a technical workshop less than 14 days from the event, their payment will not be refunded. Payments made with the intent to come to any technical workshops are outside of the program structure and no credits will be held over for later use to apply toward future tuition due, if any.

Super Trader I Cost and Payment Structure

Effective August 1, 2017 - February 28, 2018 (the price will increase as of March 1, 2018 to $67,500)

$60,000

Super Trader 1 Payment

A first payment of $42,500 is due prior to starting the program.

A second payment of $17,500 will be due 6 months after starting the program.

Based on a three year program the average amount is $20,000 per year.

These tuition payments cover a continuous three-year period in which to complete the program. The exact tuition due will vary based on credits you are eligible to receive, as a result of previous purchases and workshops attended. Currently, you may receive 100% credit for purchases and workshops attended within three calendar months of your proposed start date, which is typically assigned to the first of the month. Purchases outside of this timeframe will be credited at 50%, up to 10 years prior to your proposed start date.

There will be no tuition due upon entering Super Trader II, provided that you have at least 12 months remaining on the initial 3-year tuition period. If you have less than 12 months remaining, then tuition will be assessed in one year increments, for up to three consecutive years. Your tuition for an additional year (if due) will be $20,000 for an additional year. If it is required for you to extend your program to complete any portion, the tuition will be calculated at the yearly rate that was in effect at the time of your initial acceptance.

If you finish both Super Trader I and Super Trader II, and you still have at least 12 months remaining on the initial 3-year period, then there also will be no tuition due for Super Trader III. Again, if you have less than 12 months remaining you will be assessed tuition as described above for an additional year.

At the end of Super Trader III, you will not be required to pay additional tuition as long as you have met all previous requirements, and each of the three systems have been approved by Dr. Tharp. All students will likely have additional work they need to complete for graduation, that may continue after the initial three-year period. For example, one of your systems may be designed to work in a long term capacity – in this scenario, it could take some time for this system to produce trade results. Graduation will occur in the future, but it’s not necessary to pay tuition while the action of your system is happening. However, once your tuition timeframe has come to a close, you will not be able to attend workshops or other VTI programs as you had while actively studying within your program. There are certain instances where special arrangements can be made in this regard, at the discretion of Dr. Tharp.

Super Trader I Extensions

On very rare occasions, some students have not put forth the effort it takes to achieve real results and see quantifiable progress on their lessons. In the unlikely event that a student remains in Super Trader I throughout the three year tuition period, options available to them will depend on what they have accomplished to date.

If a student has finished five or fewer lessons, they will not be offered an extension to complete the rest of the lessons, and by extension, will be unable to move on to Super Trader II.

If a student has finished five lessons to Van’s satisfaction, and they hold a desire to continue in the program, Van may approve an extension on a year-by-year basis, for up to three years. Tuition will be assessed based upon the yearly rate at the time the student entered the program ($20,000 effective August 1st 2017.) After making that payment, you will be “charged” $1,500 per month until you finish Super Trader I. If you finish in less than ten months, than any money “leftover” from your extension payment will be credited toward your Super Trader II cost.

Super Trader II - The Masters Program

Criteria for Admittance

Completion of Super Trader I

Proof of commitment based on results from Super Trader I. For example, if someone had intended to work full-time on Super Trader I (was not employed) and they took more than three full years to complete the phase, this would be a sign of lack of commitment. Such a person may not be admitted into Super Trader II.

The Van Tharp Institute’s approval.

Receipt of payment for any tuition due.

Objectives

Ongoing work on psychological work

Completion of a personal business handbook, approved by Dr. Tharp.

What You Will Receive In Super Trader II

Any new products developed and released by the Van Tharp Institute during your Super Trader II period (Outside vendors excluded).

Access to all VTI workshops— including both technical and psychological workshops (Peak Performance 202 workshop on a seating available basis.)

From Dr. Tharp –

Continued monitoring of your timeline and weekly progress reports.

Coaching, reviewing and approving of your integration of your dream life with the development of your business handbook.

Access at our facilities to recordings of VTI technical workshops – nearly all of which have been recorded.

Completion requirements for ST2 will be the completion of all the lessons and acceptance of your trading business handbook.

Super Trader III - The Graduate Program

Dr. Tharp has restructured the program to now include a third level.

This section of the program offers another year to flesh out and develop your systems. It will include support for you to accomplish all of the following:

Be able to understand market type well enough to develop your own systems for each market type. We plan to have course for both trading in Bear Market and Sideways markets by the end of 2017.

Decide on three different systems that you intend to trade. When you choose these systems, you will thoroughly understand:

The logic behind them

How they will work in different market types

Whether they fit you

Why they work, and

When you would know that they have stopped working.

If you aren’t trading good systems yet, we have a Super Trader Playbook with 93 trading systems in it. These systems have been presented at prior workshops no longer taught at VTI, have come from current workshops, or are systems developed by Super Traders, etc.

Only Super Traders have access to this playbook.

You will have the opportunity to improve upon three of the systems from the playbook, with the purpose of improving each of them.

Understand the systems given in Dr. Ken Long’s workshops, Gabriel Grammatidis’ workshops, and the Bear Market workshop. If you pick those systems, realize that Van is not an expert in those systems but the people who teach them are. Ken’s systems require that you be a systems thinker and Gabriel’s systems require you to master his pattern recognition.

Understand the online courses in systems and talk to Van (and others) about the limitations.

As mentioned earlier, if you have 12 months or more remaining from your original three years tuition, then Super Trader III does not have any further tuition due. If there is less than 12 months remaining upon completion of Super Trader II, then the student must pay tuition for the upcoming year prior to entering the next phase. However, once a student’s systems have been approved, there is no additional charge for the time it might take to graduate. We expect that virtually everyone should be able to complete the Super Trader III system approval requirements within the allotted year.

The purpose of Super Trader III is to become a Van Tharp Institute Super Trader Graduate. Once you have your systems approved, then you will have unlimited time to graduate. To become a graduate, students will have successfully completed Super Trader I, Super Trader II, then completed Super Trader III requirements including executing 100 trades profitably and at 95% efficiency with at least a 10% contribution to the 100 trades coming from each of the approved three systems. Most people have no idea of the power of having three non-correlated systems with good SQN® scores that work in different market types, and that they can trade at 95% efficiency or better.

Criteria for Admittance to Super Trader III

Completion of Super Trader II

Attendance of at least one How to Develop A Winning Trading System That Fits You workshop, and therefore a thorough understanding of the basics of how to develop good systems for each of the 6 market types.

Attendance at several technical workshops, such as Day Trading or Trading in a Bear Market and Down Markets.

The Van Tharp Institute’s approval.

Receipt of payment for any tuition due.

Objectives

Development of three systems that work in a particular market type – approved by Dr. Tharp.

Evidence of knowledge and understanding of position sizing™ strategies.

100 trades completed at 95% or better efficiency. These 100 trades must include at least 10 trades from each of three approved systems, and must include consecutive trades during your defined trading period. Students are not allowed to “cherry-pick” 100 trades out of a larger number of trades.

What You Will Receive In Super Trader III

Any new products developed and released by the Van Tharp Institute during your Super Trader III period (Outside vendors excluded.)

Access to all VTI workshops— including both technical and psychological workshops (Peak Performance 202 workshop on a seating available basis.)

From Dr. Tharp –

Continued monitoring of your timeline and weekly progress reports.

Coaching, reviewing and approving of your business handbook and your trading systems.

Monitoring of your trading performance.

Access at our facilities to recordings of VTI technical workshops – nearly all of which have been recorded.

If you complete the full program in three years there is no additional cost for Super Trader III. If a student has used most of their three years completing Super Trader I and II, then the tuition for Super Trader III will be assessed at the yearly rate at the time they enrolled – for example, the cost would be $16,750 for students enrolling in the program prior to July 31st 2016, if and only if they had less than 12 months remaining on their original time prior to entering Super Trader III.

The True Value of the Super Trader Program

The cost of the Super Trader program may seem steep—that is, until you consider the value of the products and services that the program provides. Here is a list of what you get as a Super Trader:

1. Every core Van Tharp Institute product.

The Peak Performance Home Study Course

How to Develop a Winning Trading System That Fits You Home Study Course

The Definitive Guide to Position Sizing Strategies

Business Planning for Traders Audio Program

Introduction to Position Sizing Strategies Elearning course

The Position Sizing Trading Simulation Game (Full version)

Tharp Think Essentials Webinar

ABCs of Trading

Psychology of Trading Audio program

Any new products added that are not exclusive to the Super II program.

2. Attendance at every public Van Tharp Institute workshop.

You are permitted to attend every public workshop we present during your three years in Super Trader. Usually in a given year, we present about twenty workshops, and you have three years to come to all of them. In Super Trader I, you are permitted to attend all of the Peak Performance workshops (101, 202, 203, and 204), the Blueprint workshop, the new Systems Thinking workshop, and the How To Develop Winnging Trading Systems workshop as many times as you like during your enrollment period. You are also allowed to attend Peak Performance 202 and 203 which have limited seating. We ask that you retake these based on available seating. This is to help ensure that new students in the program get to take the classes as well as existing students.
3. Attendance at exclusive Super Trader workshops.

Specifically, this includes the annual Super Trader Summit. It also includes workshops that are sometimes presented first to Super Traders only.

4. Access to the Super Trader online collaboration database.

R.J. Hixson is a graduate of Super Trader and heads up the online database where Super Trader students share files and collaborate on various projects including trading systems.. They also communicate trading ideas, post valuable forms or information, and keep up to date with the new ideas that seem to pour in on a regular basis.

5. Dr. Tharp’s personal consulting and coaching.

This is a large part of the value of the program. Over the span of the Super Trader Program, Van spends a number of hours with each Super Trader reviewing and advising them on the following materials:

The twenty one psychological lessons in Super Trader I. (More lessons are in ST2)

Your business plan

Trading system ideas, development, and approval

Trading logs and mistake management

Weekly/quarterly progress reports

With all the above mentioned products and services, the total value of the entire Super Trader Program is well over $200,000. This should make the program costs seem significantly less than they may have up front.

Until 2011, the program cost $50,000 and Super Traders signed up for a two-year commitment, that's $25,000 per year. Now the full program (both Super Trader I and II) can cost you much less.

If you have as little as $200,000 in equity to invest, you could make up the cost of the program in terms of more consistent and profitable results in two years. All you’d have to do is increase your returns by 10% of your base capital each year, and you’d pay for the program.

One careless trading mistake on a $200,000 account could cost you $20,000 or more. This program instills in you a discipline to eliminate such mistakes and, thus, will pay for itself many times over. Furthermore, average investors with $200,000 could lose $50,000 easily in bear market conditions. But as a Super Trader student, you’ll develop a full-scale trading business plan that will help decrease your risk exposure and make profits instead—even in bear markets.

A four-year education at a top institution can easily cost you as much as $60,000 a year. Yet the value of that education doesn’t even come close to the value of the Super Trader Program. It’s an investment in your career and in your life!

You’ll be one of the very few people in the world that get personal access to and private consulting with Dr. Tharp. He could make a lot of money consulting with banks and fund managers, but he prefers to work with individual traders who are truly committed to being their best. Your total investment for the entire program is a lot less than what we could charge just for Van’s personal consulting time alone.

The first trader to sign up for Super Trader Program in the mid-90s made $50,000 within the first two months of being in the program, which significantly eclipsed his program cost (which was much lower then). The original Super Trader program had only half of the product and workshop offerings that are available now. If he was that successful with only those products and services, think about how much more profitable you could be today!

Exclusive Super Trader Events

The Super Trader Summit

We hold one Super Trader Summit each year that includes presentations on psychological journeys, business plans, systems, and technical innovations by Super Trader students. Guest speakers often join for presentations in person or by webinar. Everyone in Super Trader I, Super Trader II & III can attend this annual event usually held the first week in December. (Super Trader Post-Graduates who have graduated from the Super Trader program and continue trader training with the Van Tharp Institute may attend upon request.)

While we fill our workshop room to capacity currently at the Summit, we might have to turn some people away at some point in time in the future. To help minimize the chances for this, the Super Traders voted to remove the workshop room desks when that point comes and to fill the room instead with as many chairs that will fit. At some point in the coming years, however, Super Traders wishing to attend may exceed the capacity of our workshop room; therefore, attendees will be given priority in the following manner:

Active Super Traders (in any of the three programs) who are presenting.

Guest presenters. Active Super Trader Graduate.

Active Super Trader II (with priority given to those who have been active the longest—since the start of the program or coming off of sabbatical).

Active Super Trader I (with priority given to those who have been active the longest).

The Super Trader TurboCharge Workshop

This is a three-day Oneness workshop designed to increase your level of consciousness. It is open to everyone who is active in one of our programs, but seating is limited to 20 Super Traders. There is an additional fee for this event but Super Traders attend at a significantly reduced rate (generally under $500).

New Van Tharp Institute Workshops

Super Traders are given priority to attend new workshops. Since they could easily fill one up, we tend to offer them at special times during the summer and/or adjacent to the Super Trader Summit.

New workshops are open to anyone active in any of our programs, anyone on the psychological completion plaque who is not active in our programs on a paid basis, and to the extent there is room, regular VTI clients. Super Traders will be given priority at new workshops in the following manner:

Active Super Traders who respond by the cutoff date with the following priority:

Active Super Trader Post-Graduates (This is a continuation program for those who finish I and II).

Active Super Trader II (with priority given to those who have been active the longest).

Active Super Trader I (with priority given to those who have been active the longest).

Video Recordings of Technical Workshops

Recordings of most our technical workshops are available for screening at the VTI office for those active in Super Trader II & III, by request.

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Refunds and Sabbaticals

VTI guarantees all of our products and workshops; however, we provide no refunds and no guarantees for the Super Trader Program. Why? We have two reasons. First, you should only apply for the Super Trader Program once you are certain of the quality of our services. Most commonly, traders enroll in the program only after they have completed a home study course and attended one or more workshops. They have experienced the quality of our programs first-hand and have no doubts about the value we deliver in our training. Second, Dr. Tharp only wants to coach people who are completely committed to becoming great traders. It can be difficult to judge someone’s true level of commitment before admittance to the program. If you feel like you need to have a refund policy, the Super Trader program isn’t for you just yet—or maybe it’s not for you at all.

That being said, we know that life happens, and we try to take that into account during your participation in any of our longer-term programs. If you need to take time off from working on your trading, we make allowances for that called sabbaticals. Sabbaticals must be submitted in writing at least two weeks prior to your requested start date. Dr. Tharp will approve or disapprove all sabbaticals applications submitted.

We are always available to help you in your journey to trading success—when you do your part. When you enroll in the Super Trader Program, you commit to a significant investment of your time and money. It is then up to you how you delegate your time. If spend your time doing other things instead of working on yourself or your systems, you are responsible for that choice and its consequences. Activities outside the focus area of commitment to the Super Trader Program are not considered an acceptable reason for taking a sabbatical.

Acceptable Reasons for Sabbatical

You want to stop the program, but you have not made all of your payments. The new program offers two periods when you could stop: 1) prior to the second payment for Super Trader I and 2) prior to committing to Super Trader II.

Serious health problem for you or an immediate family member.

Death in your immediate family (spouse or child).

A natural disaster.

Birth of a child (for a limited period). If this is a possibility, please let us know when you apply for the program.

Special circumstances with Dr. Tharp’s approval.

At Dr. Tharp’s recommendation.

Unacceptable Reasons for Sabbaticals

You want to take a vacation.

You have relatives visiting.

You want to take time off to do other program.

You decide you are not committed to trading or the program. We do not allow students to take a sabbatical for this reason, but you do have two points in the program when you can de-commit from it.

You have one of the legitimate reasons listed above but you didn’t tell Dr. Tharp or his staff about it until the event already happened.

Is your objective for Super Traders to be able to trade great systems at 95% efficiency?
Trading great systems at 95% efficiency is one of the requirements for graduation, but it’s not the objective of the program. The objective of the program is massive personal transformation and hopefully, a big shift in consciousness. We’d like for each Super Trader eventually to score consistently 80+ on the happiness test and students who have completed Super Trader I frequently do score that high consistently. When you achieve this sort of transformation, anything is possible, including being able to trade great systems at better than 95% efficiency.

Can anyone join the Super Trader program?
The program is not a good fit for everyone. From a practical standpoint, you need to have sufficient capital for the program to make financial sense. In addition, because of the intense psychological nature of the program, you must believe that you are totally responsible for your trading results and be eager to work on yourself. That’s why attendance at either the Peak Performance 101 Workshop (which focuses on trader psychology) or the Oneness Awakening Workshop (which focuses on spiritual development) is a prerequisite for the program. Dr. Tharp wants to assess your receptivity to certain ideas. If you are not receptive to what we teach in those workshops, then the program will not be a good fit for you.

The program is a lot of work and some of it is very, very challenging. We look for total commitment. Totally committed people seem to always reach their objectives regardless of obstacles.

What kind of money do I need for the Super Trader Program to make financial sense?
If you have $200,000 or more to trade, then this program can make a lot of sense. You could easily save the cost of the program by learning simply how to avoid a few large losses. Furthermore, it’s our intention that you would be able to recoup the total cost of the program within a few years.

If you have $50,000 to $100,000, then this program probably doesn’t make financial sense. Instead, take the time to learn about, and achieve, financial freedom. However, we look at each application and may decide on a case-by-case basis to allow the student to enter if there are extenuating circumstances.

Why don’t you let students attend technical workshops during the first part of the program (Super Trader I)?
During Super Trader 1, we want you to focus on first things first. Doing systems work or trading before you are psychologically ready means you will take more time to finish the program. If you normally spend 20 hours a week on your psychological work, attending one workshop (about 24 in-class hours over three days—not to mention travel time!) will “cost” more than a week’s worth of work from your psychological assignments. Not only will that lengthen the time it takes you to finish the Super Trader I requirements, you’ll find your trading will continue to suffer because you are developing systems that contain all of the biases that you have not yet overcome. We have had several students enter the Super Trader program, attend lots of technical workshops, procrastinate or totally avoid the psychological assignments, and then wonder why they can’t trade very well. If you are truly committed to becoming a Super Trader in every sense of the term, then you have to do your psychological work first.

Super Trader 1 candidates can still attend technical workshops – for a fee and some have done so.

What does it take to graduate from the program?
There are now two distinct levels of achievement for the program: completion and graduation. Completing the 20 psychological lessons and documenting five major transformational changes in your life as part of Super Trader 1 elevates you to “completion” status. This phase has usually helped people achieve the objective of massive personal transformation. People who complete Super Trader 1 tend to say that what happened to them during this phase is priceless.

After completing Super Trader 1, however, you are still nowhere near graduating the program. To become a graduate, a Super Trader has to create a business handbook and have actively traded three approved trading systems at a very high efficiency level.

If I complete the program, will I be able to trade other people’s money?
What you learn in the program could help you trade other people’s money and help you manage your clients. I have not structured the program, however, to teach you how to set up a money management business. Our emphasis is on your psychology and efficient, mistake-free trading – which would certainly benefit anyone who wants to manage other people’s money – which some of my former Super Traders have gone on to do.

I have read that Dr. Tharp invests his money with Super Trader graduates. Is that true?
No, not anymore. I trade my own funds and manage VTI’s retirement funds but I no longer place money with others.

Is it a disadvantage to go through the program if I live outside the US?
About half of the people in the Super Trader program right now live overseas. Recently, we have had seven Super Traders from Australia, six from various countries in Asia, one from South America, and a number more from Europe.

We take several measures to ease the burden of long distance travel on our international Super Traders. First, much of the information exchange for the program can be done by email and Skype. We also have an online collaboration web site for the Super Traders, which is always available, regardless of location. Libby Adams’ 28-day course is done by Skype.

Second, because frequent travel to the US can be a hardship for our international Super Traders, we almost always present workshops in pairs so one trip here allows attendance at two workshops. Also, we hold Super Trader-only workshops in conjunction with the Super Trader Summit which always falls in the first week of December.

Finally, we typically present two or three workshops once each year in Australia and in Europe.

What are the most common commitment-point obstacles in the program?
When people are working on their personal issues, they run into obstacles. Many are not willing to work through the obstacles and instead they dance around them. And thus, they could take years of working on their own to do what could be done in one year with a coach and a structured program. We now give our candidates three years, but if psychological obstacles stop them, then they won’t progress until they break through the resistance they are experiencing. The most common obstacle to progress is people trying to escape from resisting certain issues rather than being willing to feel certain feelings and go through whatever comes up for them.

What if something happens and someone can’t continue the program?
See the section on sabbaticals, which includes details on the two opportunities you have to leave the program, should something major arise.

What percentage of the program requires tasks, activities, efforts, etc. that only Dr. Tharp can do?
Right now I am the only one who monitors the Super Trader lessons. And I am also the only one who can monitor the self-sabotage exercises in Peak 101,however, we are taking steps to make sure others are prepared to help handle those roles in the near future.

What if something happens to Dr. Tharp while I’m in the program?
There are risks to everything, and this is a risk you would be taking. In the event that something happened to me, you could simply stop payments if you felt disadvantaged by continuing the program. My company has been working actively to provide a lot of structure to the program and have others start helping me with the Super Traders so they could continue in the program if anything happened to me in the near term.

Since Dr. Tharp is nearing retirement age, how can I be sure that Dr. Tharp will be committed to the program for another 4 to 6 years and won’t decide to retire? First, I own the business and because the company has no mandatory retirement age, I don’t have any requirement to retire.

Furthermore, I have no desires to retire. I have the freedom to do only what I love to do so I feel like I’m already living the ultimate retirement. All aspects of the business that I don’t want to be involved in have been handled by a very capable staff for a number of years already.

Most of our Super Traders who have completed the first half of the program would argue that the benefits of the twenty lessons alone are well worth the price for the entire program. You get all that in just the first one to three years.

Have any participants had problems with Van’s emphasis on Oneness?
A few students have resisted that aspect of the program. I believe their fear-based spiritual beliefs cause them to miss out on one of the most powerful aspects of change. This probably describes about 5% of the current Super Trader candidates. Participating in the Oneness blessing is not a requirement for the program. Your decision whether or not to participate and the reasons behind it, however, are aspects I would consider in evaluating your commitment to working on yourself.

Oneness accelerates the transformation process, which is the object of the program. I have seen the most dramatic shifts in short periods of time the Super Traders since we started using Oneness processes. Almost no problems exist among those students who understand the impact the Oneness awakening tools have on transformation. One Super Trader has experienced such a monumental shift in his consciousness that he stopped trading completely and has become totally involved with the Oneness movement.

What percentage of students who have completed the Super Trader program go on to graduate and meet the criteria of trading at 95% efficiency in 100 trades over three systems? This question is a little difficult to answer because an official “graduation” like we have now was not part of the program a few years back.

For a long time, Super Traders were allowed to just attend all of our workshops for two years and work with me to solve any issues they felt they needed to address. They determined what they wanted and needed from the program. There was neither an official completion point nor a graduate status like we have today. People were happy with two years of exposure to our programs and my coaching.

In about 2008, I started adding Super Trader lessons and completion requirements for them to the program. In 2009, we developed the separate ideas of completion and then a level of achievement beyond simply “doing all the lessons” to complete the program. One year later, we came up with the strong criteria for graduation and that’s what you read about now.

Since 2009, we have had around fifteen Super Traders officially complete Super Trader 1. Some people get to that point and are very happy with their transformed lives and trade on their own or go on to other projects. For example, one person is writing a novel, another is focused on developing a food business – though both still trade. Others want to achieve the level of trading required for Super Trader graduation. In 2013, we have seven names on the “Super Trader Graduate” plaque in our training room and there will be more going on in the next year.

What percentage of students has failed to complete to the Super Trader training because of the 95% efficient trade criterion? First, the 95% efficient trade criterion in not the overall objective of the program. The overall objective is massive transformation. I make that clear in Trading Beyond the Matrix.

Second, this question assumes that 95% trading efficiency is a stumbling block, but it’s not. Personal issues are the stumbling block. By the time candidates have documented five significant transformations, overcoming trading mistakes are truly minor problems. Overcoming mistakes typically is a huge issue, however, for traders who haven’t made the kind of massive transformation expected in Super Trader I.

Third, most of the people who completed the program but didn’t graduate seemed to just stop doing Super Trader work after the two year program in the past or after finishing Super Trader 1 now. Those who stopped, for the most part have been very happy with their accomplishments. For example, a local real estate businessman went through the old program and said he was the only developer among his regional peers who did not go bankrupt in 2008/2009. He credits the survival and growth of his business to what he learned in the Super Trader program. Even though he never completed the entire psychological portion of the program, he came back to our offices two years later to explore creating a program like Super Trader 1 for people in professions outside trading. His story says a lot to us about the effectiveness of the program for helping people transform their lives.

Of those Super Traders whose business plans and systems I have approved, probably 70% of them reach graduation. There’s been only one person that the specific 95% efficiency criteria proved to be the identifiable roadblock for graduation. He had met all of the graduation criteria in less than 18 months - except for the 95% trading efficiency. He then decided to withdraw from the program and just trade his own way at that point. He’s probably doing much better than he ever could have without having done all of the Super Trader work.

How many Super Trader graduates have maintained that 95% level of efficiency after graduating?
After graduation, Super Traders no longer have to turn in any results. Because they have graduated from the program, however, these traders understand the importance of high efficiency trading and they also have the knowledge about how to resolve any trading problems that come up. Trading successfully is an exercise in internal control and they have already tackled far more challenging tasks simply by completing Super Trader 1 and meeting the graduation criteria.

If I’m interested in the Super Trader program, what do I need to do?
The first step is to attend a Peak Performance 101 Workshop or Oneness Awakening Workshop. Usually during a lunch at these workshops, I meet with anyone who is interested to talk about the Super Trader program. If you are still interested after that, then you would complete a commitment statement and the application. We look for the depth of your commitment, the strength of your discipline, and your willingness to do the psychological work that ensures your success in this program. In addition, the program should make financial sense for you.

If you meet the entry criteria and you are ready to start, we will look for an upcoming month with an open slot. We only accept two new candidates into the program each month, so space is limited. As a result, you be accepted but you may have to wait a few months before officially starting the program.

What if I have more questions, can I just email them to you?
I meet with people who are interested in the Super Trader program during the workshops and answer all their questions at that time. People truly committed to personal transformation and trading excellence will find a way to attend either Peak 101 or the Oneness Workshop to get their questions answered. Also, you may call or email my office and a VTI team member will be happy to help get your questions answered.

Thank You
We look forward to meeting you at an upcoming Oneness Awakening or Peak Performance workshop.

Most of you have probably heard me say that trading isn’t easy. Considering how simple it is to go into a brokerage company, open an account, and—as soon as you figure out the buy and sell buttons—start trading, you’d think that even an E-Trade “baby” could do it, but without experience and training, your results will probably be disastrous.

We believe that good trading takes as much training as any other profession. In fact, Malcolm Gladwell in his book Outliers suggests that it probably takes 10,000 hours of great practice to really be “super” at anything. We tend to agree.

With that in mind, I recently looked at the Van Tharp Institute curriculum to see how much time it would really take to finish everything we recommend, because we recently expanded the Super Trader program from two years to as much as six years. The extra time gives people more time to finish the entire set of graduation requirements.

Let’s take a look at the program curriculum, starting with the basic material. The table below shows each of the items we offer or recommend, what they cost, and the number of hours it would take to complete the course/workshop and master the material. Mastering the material includes the time necessary after the workshop to really integrate the material.

We first recommend taking our ABCs e-learning course if you know nothing about trading and investing. That takes about 25 hours to go through and it only costs $50. Then we recommend reading books like Trading Beyond the Matrix, Trade Your Way to Financial Freedom and Super Trader. Taking the Tharp Think Essentials video workshop would be helpful. Notice that if you mastered all of this, it would take you about 145 hours or a little nearly a month to do full time. Tharp Think refers to a set of principles that define the approach to trading Van teachs through courses and workshops. Tharp Think involves discovering who you are as a trader, understanding risk, managing risk, and learning how to make your personal psychology work for you.

The next step is to master yourself and this is the part that takes Super Trader candidates so long to do. The next table includes our offering in that area.

Psychology / Spiritual Workshops and Courses

Cost

Number of Days

HoursRequired

Number of Times Necessary

Peak Performance 101 Workshop

$2995 ($700)

3

40

3=120

Peak Performance 202 Workshop

$3995 ($700)

4

60 hrs

3 = 180 hrs

Peak Performance 203 Workshop

$3995 ($700)

3, plus 6-week follow-up

140 hrs

3 = 420 hrs

Peak Performance 204 Workshop

$3995 ($700)

3, plus 6-week follow-up

140 hrs

3 = 420 hrs

Trading Genius Workshop

$3995 ($700)

3, plus 6-week follow-up

140 hrs

3 = 420 hrs

Oneness Workshop

$795

2

100 hrs

5 = 500 hrs

Libby Adam’s 28 day Transformation Course

$7500 ($1505)

28 days at 2.5 hrs per day = 8.75 workdays

150 hrs

2* = 300 hrs

Peak Performance Home Study Course

$795

2 mo. at 2 hr/day

120 hrs

3 = 360 hrs

Peak Performance Home Study Course with Super Trader Lessons

$795 plus ST

20 hrs per lesson

320 hrs

1 = 320 hrs

Total Psychology

$27,495

20.75 days ++

1,575 hrs

2,570 hrs

The cost column has the list price first and then the early enrollment discount we usually give in parentheses. “Hours Required” represents how many hours it usually takes to complete the course and all of its assignments, and “Number of Times Necessary” represents the number of times, in Van's experience, most people need to take each course before they master the material. For example, the Peak 203 workshop is three days long, but it also has a six-week follow up course; together, they take about 140 hours to complete. However, most people need to take the workshop three times before mastering all of the material, so the total number of hours for Peak 203 is 3x140, or 420 hours.

We recommend that people take each of our psychological workshops as many as three times. Why? Because you get more out of them each time you take them. You evolve and change, so each instance ends up being like a different workshop. However, that doesn’t mean that a person won’t get a tremendous amount out of any workshop the first time through. Most do, and it just depends upon how well you apply yourself to the material.

Van has put A Course in Miracles in the curriculum, but it could just as easily be the Sedona Method course, or anything else that you work on perhaps 1-2 hours per day. Also two examples of the Peak Performance Course are given. People probably spend about 120 hours on the course but they skip a lot—including most of the material that is critical for their personal growth. And that’s why when people finally get it, they’ve usually put in about 360 hours, or done it three times. The other alternative, which is to have Van review 20 completed Super Trader lessons, is available for Super Trader candidates only.

Notice that the psychological section of the Super Trader program takes about 2,570 hours, or about 1.25 years to complete, and that the total time for these two sections is now about 1.5 years of full-time work. That may seem like a lot of effort, however, that year of psychological work improves everything in your life and Super Traders end up being much happier people. Let’s move on to our workshops that cover important and basic trading topics that apply to any trading business.

Global Workshops and Courses

Days

Cost

Hours Required

Number of Times Necessary

Blueprint For Trading Success Workshop

3

$2,995 ($700)

25-hr workshop + 125 hrs of assignments = 150 hrs

2x25-hr workshop + 125 hrs = 175 hrs

How To Develop A Winning System Workshop

3

$2995 ($700)

50 hrs

2 = 100 hrs

Systems Home Study Course

2 hr/CD

$795

48 hrs

1 = 48 hrs

Position Sizing Strategies (Definitive Guide book and Position Sizing eLearning Course)

10

$395

50 hrs

1 = 50 hrs

Total Global

7 days

$7,180

298 hrs

373 hrs

The Blueprint course gives you an overview of everything you need to be successful as a trader and prepares you to write a business plan. The Blueprint course is about 25 hours long, but it probably takes 125 hrs (or more) to do all the exercises and complete a business plan for 150 hrs. Most people have to attend the workshop twice to finish off a great business plan, so the total number of hours required to complete the material is about 175. We also recommend studying the How to Develop A Winning Trading System home study course and all our material on Position sizing, which includes the Introduction to Position Sizing Strategies eLearning course and the Definitive Guide to Position Sizing™ book. To master all of the material in these workshops, courses, and books, it would take about 373 hours, or about ten weeks working at it full-time.

The next section of the Super Trader II program is our technical section.

Technical Workshops

Cost

Days

Hours to Complete

Number of times to master

Day Trading Systems

$3,995 ($700)

3

60 hrs

1 w/live trading

Live Day Trading Systems

$2,500

2

60 hrs

1

Core Trading Systems Video

$2,995 ($700)

2

50 hrs

1

Swing Trading Systems Video

$3,500

5

60

4 = 240

Forex Systems Workshop

$3,995 ($700)

3

50

1 = 50

Live Forex Trading

$3,000

2

50

1

Bear Market Systems Workshop

$3,295 ($700)

3

50

1 = 50

TOTAL TECHNICAL

$23,480 (not including planned workshops

20 days (34 days in future)

460

790

Right now, we have five technical workshops, including the Forex workshop..

Day Trading Systems introduces all of Ken Long’s short term systems that can be traded mechanically. His live trading workshop teaches how those same systems can be traded with some discretion. Ken’s teaches long-term systems that only require attention once a week or less in his Core Systems Workshop now available via video.

Bear Market Strategies is designed to show you how to cope with volatile bear markets and down markets.

Notice that Van has listed 790 hours to master the technical section. That now puts our total of all three sections at 3,879 hours, or nearly two years of full-time work.

And now let’s look at the last section, which consists of Super-Trader-only workshops.

Super Trader Only Events

Cost

Days

Hours to complete

Total hours if mastered

Super Trader Summit

$5,000

3

60

3 = 180

Supercharger (oneness)

$795

3

140

3 = 420

Options Workshop (recorded)

$3,000

2

40

3 = 120

TOTAL Super Trader Only Events

$8,395

10 days

240

720 hrs

TOTAL TRAINING DAYS

$50,209 (not including planned workshops)

43.75 days now (21 more planned)

2,337 hrs

4,499 hrs or 2.25 years

We recommend that most of our candidates attend the annual three-day Super Trader Summit at least three times. In addition, we recorded special two-day Options course, which we’ll show again at various summits.

.
The Super-Trader-only events add another 720 hours. Now we’re up to 4,485 hours, or 2.25 years to complete our curriculum. If you add to this another 5,000 hours of excellent trading on your own, you are at Malcolm Gladwell’s tipping point of 10,000 hours.
Incidentally, notice that the total value of everything (taken one time only) is now over $50,000. Super Traders are permitted to take approved workshops for their phase as many times as they like, so taking every workshop just twice would equal over $100,000. Van’s consulting rate is $20,000 per day or $2250 per hour and you’ll also be getting his time to:

Review your weekly reports

Review lessons

Review your personal trading planning document

Review each system

And review your trading logs.

*We only offer Libby’s course once in the Program, but most of the Super Traders do extra work with her so we’ve estimated two times.